Extension for submarines

The Defence Department is confident it can extend the life of the troubled Collins Class submarine while it develops a new fleet but admits to challenges keeping the vessels a match for modernising militaries in the Asia region.

The trouble-plagued Collins-class submarines cost about $440 million a year to maintain.

It also revealed it has gathered a hand-picked team of international and local experts to start planning potential new designs for the Collins’ successor, which is expected around 2030 or later.

Speaking at the Pacific 2013 maritime security conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Defence’s top submarine manager, David Gould, said steps were already being taken to make sure the Collins did not become obsolete even if – as expected – the life of the six submarines needs to be extended by about seven years.

He said he was confident this additional lifespan would bridge the feared “capability gap” around the late 2020’s when Australia would otherwise be at risk of having no reliable submarine fleet.

Maintaining the Collins so that the six submarines could safely go to sea for the extra few years was “not a particular concern”, he said, given many potential problems were already being headed off now.

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But he added: “What could become operationally important in the future is the relative survivability of the submarine in a changing operational environment into the future, to 2030, when you’ve got more new, modern submarines being deployed in this area of the world and so forth.”

Many countries in the Asia region – not just the big players China and Japan, but also Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia – are beefing up their naval power, including with submarines.

Mr Gould said there was work Australia could do on the Collins to ensure it wasn’t outmatched in the region if its life were extended. But he declined to say what that work was.

Rear Admiral Rowan Moffitt, the outgoing head of the Future Submarine Program, said there would be “a gradually declining capability against potential adversaries” with the Collins but stressed it would be hard to predict how sophisticated other countries in the region would become by 2030.

One example of a future challenge, he said, was the growing sophistication of sonar detection on other countries’ submarines, which meant the Collins – which has had noise problems – could find it increasingly hard to remain stealthy.

“It’s something that we’re critically aware of … and make our assessments periodically to make sure we’re not caught unawares,” he said. “There are capability enhancements for the Collins Class that are already on the books and in train, such as sonar upgrades.”

The federal government is yet to decide whether to choose a totally new design or a so-called Son of Collins – an evolution of the current design.

While the Collins has been plagued by problems, Mr Gould and others say that Australia has learnt from the mistakes so that it is well-placed to design – with help from international colleagues – and build a better boat next time.

A team of about 30 people has started planning for possible fresh designs for the Collins’ successor. It is headed by Englishman Simon Todd, who has previously worked on Britain’s Astute-class submarine program.